I really don't want to get into a whole rant/debate about what the term "indie" means, because technically a game like Journey is not in that category, but for the sake of this blog I will refer to small, downloadable games as indie, just to avoid confusion. More importantly, I want to celebrate the awesomeness that these small development teams are putting out there.

These smaller games are becoming more and more prevalent and while some people have their panties in a twist about it, I love it. No, these small games will never be better than Grand Theft Auto, Uncharted or Bioshock but that doesn't mean they can't be fantastic in their own right. Many of my favorite games last generation came from PSN. The middle tier developer has died off and now we get more interesting, unique and consumer friendly games. I mean, a few years ago, a game like Outlast would have gotten a physical release but it would have been 10 hours longer, included guns and been £40/$60. Instead, because of the awesome time we live in, a game like Outlast can be 7 hours long and offer you no way of attacking and, best of all, cost £15/$20.

So you can either accept the way the industry is headed, and get wonderful experiences for it, or continue complaining.

I'm going to list 10 indie titles that I really love and would like you to do the same. So, just to clarify, games like Journey, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Child of Light are all acceptable (and great) choices. Here is my list!

Counterspy

Counterspy came out around E3 last year and I played the heck out of it. It's a 2.5D stealth game in which you play a shady figure in the Cold War. Besides really great visuals and fun gameplay, I loved Counterspy for not taking a side in the war, you can infiltrate the US or the USSR and steal their plans, all leading to you stopping an attack on the moon. It's tongue-in-cheek and very stylish.

The Unfinished Swan

The Unfinished Swan is something truly special. It's probably the most unique game I have ever played and without doubt a testament to video games as art. The idea is so simple, throw paint to guide your way, but the way Giant Sparrow made it fun and non-repetitive is to be admired, and the story is very sweet and charming. This is a game absolutely everyone should try, it channels the artist in all of us.

Hotline Miami

I'm sure you're all well aware of Hotline Miami, and for good reason. It's an uber-violent 80's action movie, with a top-down art-style and thumping soundtrack that perfectly reflects the insanity it presents. Hotline Miami is difficult and infuriating but well worth the grind.

Guacamelee

Much like Hotline Miami, Guacamelee is not exactly an under-the-radar title. This game is very popular and, deservedly, a previous game of the year candidate. It's a classic Metroidvania game but with a Mexican/Lucha Libre setting that makes it bizarre and awesome. This is side-scroll platforming at its best.

Rogue Legacy

Rogue Legacy is an incredibly addictive game. Repetition is the key, in a procedurally-generated map. Running through the weird castle over and over, upgrading your character(s) and slowly figuring out hot to progress, is part of the charm Rogue Legacy oozes.

Valiant Hearts

Valiant Hearts is one of two amazing small games released by Ubisoft last year. Valiant Hearts is a WW1 puzzle game with some of the best art design you will ever see and a truly moving story.

Outlast

The game that took the internet by storm, Outlast is a horror game like few others. You play as a defenseless journalist, sent to Mount Massive Asylum in order to figure out what the hell went wrong. Of course, bad things are waiting for you in the asylum and its truly terrifying. Outlast is survival horror.

The Walking Dead

What more can be said about Telltale's The Walking Dead that hasn't already? It's just some of the most engaging, emotional and immersive story you can find in any medium. Lee and Clementine's story is one we will be talking about for many years to come.

Journey

Journey is beautiful. That's really the only word to describe it and it''s the only word that fits. No dialogue is a bonus in a game where you continuously move toward a shining beacon in the distance. It's a game that needs to be played to be understood.

Child of Light

Child of Light is the second small Ubisoft game that released last year and was met with critical acclaim. A bite-sized rpg, Child of Light takes you on a truly magical journey through the afterlife in order to help your father. It's jaw-dropping and elegant, as well as very simple and fun. Child of Light is a wonderful rpg for all, especially those that don't have 50+ hours to kill.

Earlier today I started compiling a list of my 30 favorite games of all-time. It's a pretty hard thing to define, considering how many games there are and the different ways in which we care about them. That blog will probably go up tomorrow but in the meantime I wanted to ask the question of you guys.

I have a very hard time choosing my definitive favorite game but it usually comes down to The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption. Yes, a lot of my favorites are from the PS3/360 generation because that was the first gen in which I became a "hardcore" gamer. Throughout the PS2 generation I mainly played things like The Simpsons Hit and Run, Fifa, Spider-Man, and WWE. Then the next-gen came and I started it with a bang, Dead Rising and Gears of War. Wow.

Anyway, gun to my head I think I would choose Red Dead Redemption as my favorite game ever. I simply adore the world, characters, story, music, everything - it even had the best ever DLC! It's a testament to Rockstar that they created a western game and somehow I was able to traverse the landscape without setting waypoints. Like, I knew my way to Armadillo, despite their being no big roads or obvious landmarks. Game design at its finest! Red Dead is a masterpiece.

Now, I want to know what your favorite game is. It's a hard decision to make, so feel free to list several. Go nuts!

Fall 2014 is a strange time for video games. Several of the big releases we were to receive were pushed back to 2015, thus leaving Ubisoft to largely lead the charge in third-party software alongside the usual sports games and Call of Duty. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things to be excited about, on the contrary the delays are a great thing because it frees up time for us gamers to really plunge into games like Far Cry 4 without feeling pressured to get to the next game. That being said the following list of games is not confined to 2014 releases, rather it’s made up mostly of 2015 releases.

More importantly these are my most anticipated upcoming games and why I’m excited for them. A lot of gamers these days are complaining that there are no games on PS4 or Xbox One but that couldn’t’ be further from the truth; there are games released daily for the PS4. I understand the majority of gamers who make that complaint don’t like indies and only want AAA games but those gamers are simply doing a disservice to themselves by not getting with the times and broadening their horizons. The amazing indies game son both platforms help tide the wait between the big AAA releases. However, this list does not contain any downloadable only games, they are all indeed big AAA games. Which is not hypocrisy, I love indies, but the games I anticipate are the big ones I can really sink my teeth into.

But enough with the introduction, let’s just dive into the list. First up at number 5:

5. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

This is one of those games I mentioned that was supposed to come out in 2014 but suffered quite a huge delay. The important thing to keep in mind when a game is delayed is that the developer only does it to make the game better. Sure, delays are disappointing but I’d take that over a lesser game.

Anyway, The Witcher 3 is due out in Q1 2015, and it looks amazing. With a map twice the size of Skyrim and dramatically diverse landscapes to traverse, not to mention jaw-dropping graphics, The Wild Hunt looks to be the best in the series and possibly the best RPG we’ve seen to date. The combat in The Witcher appeals to me greatly because I am not a big hack-n-slash fan, nor am I a fan of the sluggish combat in Dark Souls. The Witcher seems to have found a perfect balance between those two styles and marries the combat with the gritty aesthetic perfectly.

Dragon Age Inquisition is out this fall and it also looks fantastic. After the first few games in the Dragon Age series Bioware seemed to have really nailed it this time. Despite how great Inquisition looks, I decided to just wait and get The Witcher 3. I don’t like to play too many similar games in close proximity so I chose one over the other for now and I will get to Dragon Age at some point. I know Inquisition comes out quite a while before The Wild Hunt but my fall game will be Far Cry 4.

All in all The Witcher 3 looks to be a huge, spectacular and extensive game that sets the bar for RPG’s on the PS4 and Xbox One.

4. WWE 2K15

I know choosing a WWE game is going to divisive because there are a lot of non-wrestling fans out there but I am a huge wrestling fan and this year’s instalment has me very excited.

I was so happy when IGN revealed that 2K15 was to be there IGN First game of the month. It’s a game I look forward to every year and am always scouring the web for new details but this year I know I can just stick to IGN and get all the new details first, so big thanks to IGN for that one.

This is the first WWE game for PS4 and Xbox One and 2K seems to have really made an effort to separate it from the last-gen games. First off the graphics have received a big overhaul and that was desperately needed. The graphics in the series seemed to improve little since the start of the PS3/360 era to the end but thankfully that has been rectified and the game looks gorgeous.

The gameplay has also received several new features this year. Probably the most notable change is the speed, which has been slowed a fair amount to allow for more realistic matches. Also the types of moves you can do depend on how far into the match you are, meaning you can’t come out and hit a big powerbomb right away, you have to wear the opponent down. I’m a big fan of anything that changes the old system of ‘who can hit a clothesline first, repeat.’

There are two big new modes introduced in the game this year, ----------- and My Career. The first sees gamers play through two classic rivalries in great depth; Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H and John Cena vs. CM Punk. This should be a fun, interesting mode to play through, especially as the two chosen rivalries have yet to be covered in the games, whereas I expected them to choose something predictable like Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. The second mode is lifted from the NBA 2K14 game, which sees you create a wrestler and start at the bottom, working your way from NXT to Raw and beyond. This is the mode I am most excited for and reminds me of the great career modes from the WWE Day of Reckoning games.

WWE 2K15 should really set the bar for wrestling games going forward and hopefully each year provides a marked change that justifies the price tag.

3. Batman: Arkham Knight

The end of Batman is nigh. Well, Rocksteady's at least.

It’s both a sad time and a joyous one. The sadness stems from the fact that we potentially won’t be getting any more Batman games from the studio that redefined the stigma around superhero video games. That being said I don’t’ really believe Rocksteady are done with Batman or superheroes. The studio is way too proven in that genre and have the engine etc. to continue making great games in the superhero vein. Needless to say I don’t know what Rocksteady will do next, it could be a brand new IP and that too is very exciting, but my best guess would be a Justice League game that could very well coincide with the eventual Justice League movie. That would be a complete no-brainer both from the viewpoint of Rocksteady and DC/Warner Bros. I also believe Warner Bros. will make a sequel to Arkham Origins.

The joyous news is, we’re getting more Batman! Fans were not overly impressed with Batman Arkham Origins, not made by Rocksteady, and I too was a little disappointed with it. It was a good game and if experienced in a vacuum, if the previous Arkham games didn’t exist, I think we would all love it. But that’s not the way of it, Arkham Origins just didn’t live up to the extremely high standard of Rocksteady. The backlash to Origins is why I believe Rocksteady unveiled Arkham Knight as early as they did. They knew the game wasn’t ready or anywhere near it, hence the delay shortly after the reveal, but they unveiled it to divert attention back to their talents and get the pre-orders rolling in.

Arkham Knight looks amazing. Once again Rocksteady have taken the blueprint they set in place and built a skyscraper on top of it. Gotham has been fully realised in this final iteration and with it comes the highly-anticipated Batmobile. Along with the legendary car the gameplay has been refined to make traversing the city and beating up thugs all the easier and more enjoyable. The story this time focuses on a scorn Scarecrow from the original game who has vowed revenge on Batman and the entire city has been evacuated. Then of course we have the more mysterious role of the titular character, the Arkham Knight.

There’s much to be excited about pertaining to the next Batman game but we all know the reasons why, it’s more and bigger of what we know and love. That’s what all we really need to know.

2. The Order: 1886

The Order: 1886 is the first AAA game from Ready At Dawn, the studio that made Daxter and the God of War games for the PSP, as well as Okami on the Wii. Naturally taking a small studio who worked on small portable games to making a huge PS4 game, that is really the only in-house exclusive coming in the majority of 2015, seems like a risk. However Ready At Dawn are a very talented studio, whose average Metacritic score is 87.

The Order: 1886 was unveiled at E3 2013 as a big new PS4 exclusive. Since then we have seen some gameplay and story trailers that are both very intriguing. The first thing you notice about the game is that it looks beautiful, probably the best graphics yet to be seen on next gen. It operates in a Neo-Victorian alternative time period that sees zeppelins, light-guns and werewolves in the same universe as the real-life London industrial revolution. This is an exciting prospect, alternative time periods like this are really cool and unique in today’s market, so the story is a huge aspect of the game.

The gameplay is where the game becomes slightly worrisome. Several reports and previews on The Order have stated that the game is great, except for the shooting. The game is a cover-based shooter in a very similar vein to Gears of War but the shooting is allegedly not up to the standard of its counterpart. That being said, the builds that were played were designed almost a year ago and obviously a game can go under huge transformations in that time period. Indeed Naughty Dog have stated that without their 6 week delay of The Last of Us meant a great deal to them and really helped polish the game. The fact that The Order was delayed was a great thing, it can only help the game’s development.

Despite some less-than-exciting gameplay previews there have also been positive ones. At E3 2014 Sony showed off a new part of the game that had never been previously revealed, a somewhat horror section. This part of the game has received some very glowing reports, highlighting the fact that you are being chased by a werewolf through a building and you cannot fight back, you can only run. The game has never been marketed as a scary one but it does feature such sections and those look to be very intriguing and could potentially set it apart from the assumptions that have been made thus far.

The Order: 1886 looks interesting. I’m a fan of the cover-based shooting of Gears of War and I am warily excited about that aspect. The story/setting of the game is what is most intriguing, for me at least. The game has a lot going for it and being the only PS4 exclusive in the first half of 2015 means it will have a great opportunity to be successful. Let’s hope it achieves such success.

1. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Now this game truly causes a mixture of emotions. Similarly to Arkham Knight, Uncharted 4 will seemingly be the final Uncharted game. The sad news is, unlike Arkham Knight, I can’t imagine Naughty Dog letting anyone else take their series and making PS4 games with it, especially if the story comes to an end in this one. However Uncharted is the crown jewel for the Playstation brand and it’s hard to imagine Sony letting that kind of monetary potential just sit on the shelf. So as far as future Uncharted games go, I am unsure but inclined to think this will be the last.

Coming off the heels of the Game of the Year and in many opinions, the game of the generation, The Last of Us, Naughty Dog are the hottest developer in the industry. I would argue that they were easily in the top 3 beforehand anyway but that masterpiece just set the bar. The Uncharted series has received critical acclaim, particularly the previous two instalments. Uncharted 3 received a perfect 10 from IGN as did The Last of Us, meaning Uncharted 4 really does have a lot to live up to.

So far we have only seen a teaser and a short, cinematic trailer for A Thief’s End. The first teaser just showed a map with the villain speaking of how Drake left him to die and he would have his revenge. The actor playing the villain was since recast. The second trailer showed Nathan Drake laying in a puddle of water, unconscious with a fly crawling over him. He wakes up, checks his gun and heads off into the forest surrounded by skeletons in cages. All the while he and Sully converse over the footage, saying that they have to do it one more time. It’s all been quite cryptic so far, as is true Naughty Dog style, but we do know that at least a section of it is set in a jungle, potentially the jungle from the original Uncharted game which would mean a return to roots story. Drake also looks noticeably older, further cementing the idea that this will be his final outing.

The only other info we have is that, based on a promo for The Last of Us, we seen a Naughty Dog developer in the background toiling away on an animated pirate figure. This lends to the theory that either the game will feature some old-ass villains or there will be flashback scenes to Sir Francis Drake and his pirate exploits. Uncharted 3 featured some amazing flashback scenes so I wouldn’t be surprised if they returned.

Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the trouble Naughty Dog has had this past year. Several employees, including Uncharted writer Amy Henning, left the company and the head of the game was changed to The Last of Us figureheads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley. The turmoil was seemingly unending at one point and it spelled terrible things for Uncharted 4. However since the E3 reveal and the Q4 2015 release date it seems fears have been alleviated.

Yes Uncharted 4 looks great. Naughty Dog will hopefully follow the footsteps of itself and hit us with another masterpiece. And, to be honest, by the titbits we’ve seen and heard, as well as graphics of that gorgeous fly on Drakes face, it just might.

There are no games. That’s the cry heard from gamers around the world at this time. On message boards and comment sections you can see the negativity flow endlessly about how there just aren’t enough AAA games and, more importantly, no exclusive AAA games for PS4 or Xbox One. Of course there is some merit to this argument and there is an undeniable lack of such games, however there is a viable, cheap solution…indie games.

Yes the now-taboo words. I’m not sure why or when it happened but somehow the words indie game have become a negative thing. The reality is that anyone who isn’t playing these games is denying themselves a great time that doesn’t break the bank and, quite frankly, is living in a bygone era.

The era I speak of is the mid-tier games. Sometime in the last generation (ps3, 360) these kind of games and their developers began dying; THQ, Sony Liverpool, Zipper Interactive, 38 Studios and Rockstar Vancouver to name but a few. All of those studios produced good, memorable games like SOCOM, Max Payne 3, Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning, WipeOut and THQ alone was responsible for Saints Row, Homefront and the WWE and UFC series’. That’s a lot of good games and good talent that is gone and moved on to new companies. The mid-tier game is officially dead, so if you wonder why we haven’t gotten a Mirrors Edge or Crackdown sequel before now, it’s because to make them nowadays means to bump them up to AAA status, and for games that only sold ok that is a big ask. Hence why at E3 last year EA said, “We are making this for you” in reference to Mirrors Edge. The death of the mid-tier is the bad news, the good news is that we don’t need a mid-tier. Indeed I would argue that the loss of the middle games is the best thing to happen to video games in a long time, it caused a shift in developers and the kinds of games they make, resulting in the myriad of indie games we now get. I know we all miss games like Homefront that help tide the wait between the GTA’s and the Uncharted’s but that wait has been made much easier with the indies.

So many games, so little sold.

I didn’t jump into the indie craze when it started, simply because I didn’t buy anything from the PSN at that point, but as time passed I began seeing more and more interesting titles appear on there that appealed. Finally I was bitten by the bug when Sony’s PSN was hacked back in 2011 and in the aftermath they gave away several titles. I had heard of Infamous but never bothered getting it, so when they gave it away for free I decided it was time to sign up. I did just that and never looked back. For the sake of this article I went back and checked what the first indie I ever bought was…..I Am Alive. An ok game that probably got a bit more flak than it deserved. However I think the first indies I played that had me hooked were The Walking Dead and The Unfinished Swan. These two titles are perfect examples of why the mid-tier is better off dead; those kind of games would never have seen the light of day before indies were a thing. Instead of having countless FPS games that are all average but cost £40/$60/€60 because they received physical releases, we get really fun, experimental and memorable experiences like Journey that cost £10/$15/€15.

Where else could you stab Zombies episodically?

Something that I only recently realised, at this past E3 to be exact, is that indie games are replacing the mid-tier games. I know it sounds like I’ve stated that a hundred times already but I mean some different this time. With a mid-tier game you often get a stretched out story to justify its price tag and physical release but now that isn’t a problem and it is cheaper for developers to either self-publish or go through Sony or Microsoft and publish online. So instead we get a great game in which the story is polished and only lasts however long it has to. Take Outlast for example, that’s a game that is 5-6 hours long in which you have no way to defend yourself, had it been a physical release it would have a 10 hour game with guns and weapons. Developers need to justify the price tag for physical releases and so games can’t be as experimental and quirky as many indie games we see. If online publishing was not an option we would never see fantastic titles like The Wolf Among us, Valiant Hearts, Limbo or Shovel Knight. So basically instead of the decent but stretched-out physical releases we get higher-quality, unique games online for less money.

The label indie is misleading nowadays. It no longer really applies to a lot of games to say they are indies because they are really small studios that work with Sony or Microsoft to publish their games. Also, not just because of the funding, but the quality and size of the games are not what we associate with indies. If you look at the slate of upcoming games for both PS4 and Xbox One you see titles like WILD, Ghost of a Tale, No Man’s Sky, Superhot and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, you can see a pattern. The pattern I am referring to is size, all of those games are not small, side-scrollers or games that look like they could run on the SNES, which is a common complaint I’ve read. The term indie is often misplaced and untrue but it’s how we describe the downloadable only titles on PSN or Xbox Live.

Not so small Indie

A platform that suffers hugely from the indie hate is the PS Vita. Originally touted as a PS3 in your pocket, the Vita never managed to find its footing and the third-party AAA support for it has waned big time. This is sad because when a game is built from the ground up for the Vita by a team that really gets it, it truly is an amazing place to play. Big Vita games can be found in Killzone: Mercenary, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Persona 4 Golden, Tearaway and many more, all of which are great games that are perfect on the Vita. I too have been disappointed with the apparent lack of big third-party games on Vita, like a GTA or that long-awaited Bioshock game that we won’t see, but the more I played the Vita I realised I preferred playing games like Hotline Miami on it as opposed to Assassins Creed. The Vita is a fantastic portable device and as such it works better with bit-size experiences that can be jumped in and out of. There are more games coming out for the Vita than any other platform, that is astounding considering the popular opinion that Sony doesn’t care about it and it has no games. The Vita, in my opinion, is the perfect place to play indie games and more people should realise that.

I play a wide variety of games these days that I never used to and I love it. As a PS4 owner the last few AAA titles I played were Watch Dogs and South Park: TSOT, the next AAA title I plan to play is Killzone: Shadowfall and then Far Cry 4. However I don’t just jump from one AAA game to the next, I intersperse those great games with CounterSpy, Surgeon Simulator, Don’t Starve and The Last Tinkerer. Playing games this way, big and small, gives me a wide variety of experiences and keeps my gaming time feel fresh and exciting. I’m as excited for Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture as I am for The Order: 1886, and that’s a very good thing. I’m a happier, more-experienced gamer since I embraced indie games and I plan to continue supporting massively talented devs like Hello Games, a group of 10 employees that are making literally the biggest procedurally generated game of all time in No Man’s Sky. I will throw my money at that kind of game because it is different, it’s interesting, unique and has endless potential. Give me that over another generic FPS game anyday.

Indie games and the countless other downloadable only titles are better value for money than the old mid-tier games we got for years. The variety of games we are seeing released daily is staggering, more than ever before, and they provide something for everyone. The old gamers who say they aren’t made like they used to be, well that’s just not true, just play Shovel Knight, Rogue Legacy or Towerfall: Ascension. Or play games that borrow from the classics but have modern or unique aesthetics like Fez, The Swapper or Guacamelee. And for the gamers who miss the AA titles like Just Cause, you can play Child of Light, Contrast or Daylight. I’m listing games simply to highlight the crazy amount of variety and quality people are missing out on because they haven’t moved with the times. All in all, to anyone who isn’t playing digital only games, get out there and dive headfirst into a world of fun, unique, challenging, scary and, maybe most importantly, memorable experiences that await. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

I remember around February of this year I read an article that stated 2013 would be a boring year for gaming. At the time of reading I thought to myself how stupid that was seeing as Bioshock: Infinite, God of War: Ascension, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Gears of War: Judgement, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V and more were all due out this year! I personally thought it had the potential to be one of the greatest gaming years ever, and that was all before Sony sent out their invitation that started the next generation of consoles!

With a line-up as strong as that, not even mentioning surprise hits like Guacamelee, Gone Home and Ni No Kuni, 2013 has been easily one of the strongest years for gaming ever. It’s for this reason that I never understand it when people claim gaming is terrible now or better during the Nintendo/Sega era, opinions like that stem from pure nostalgia. Now that isn’t to say those were bad consoles or produced bad games, they certainly weren’t but with the sheer diversity of titles on the market today; be they massive action blockbusters like GTA V, story-driven epics like The Last of Us or downloadable 2D side-scrollers like Guacamelee, there is something for everyone.

In 2013 we got epic experiences and memorable mini-games that will stick with us for years. The Last of Us has a Metacritic rating of 95, Bioshock Infinite 94, Tomb Raider 87, Splinter Cell: Blacklist 84, Guacamelee 88, Gone Home 89 and Grand Theft Auto V 97. That’s one hell of an incredible list of ratings, the lowest score being 84, which works out at an average of 90. I don’t even have to explain how incredible that is. With scores like that it is clear that 2013 has been one of the greatest years for games, to date. I say to date because Beyond: Two Souls, Battlefield 4, Gran Turismo 6, Titanfall, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs, Dead Rising 3, Knack, Killzone: Shadowfall, Drive Club and Batman: Arkham Origins, are all yet to come.

With the great games we’ve already gotten our hands on, those yet to be released and the two new behemoth consoles on the way, I honestly can’t think of a more exciting time to be a gamer! Ever! Never before have new consoles had such strong build-ups and launch line-ups; the PS3 had Motorstorm and Resistance, the latter which was a fantastic game but a brand new IP that failed to sell systems. Having a new Killzone as a launch title is a huge selling point for the PS4 and adding family-friendly Knack and Drive Club to the exclusives, as well as the great third-party titles and Destiny, PS4 has an insane line-up. Xbox One also has a great line-up with Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome and Forza Motorsport 5, which they didn’t have with the 360.

The strength of the new consoles has been solidified through pre-order figures – Sony has sold over 1 Million PS4’s already and Gamestop say over 1.5 Million people are on their first to know list for the next PS4 pre-orders – which present completely staggering numbers. To top this all off, Sony estimate that they will sell over 5 Million units by March 2014. Now we haven’t gotten any pre-order numbers from Microsoft, most likely because it doesn’t rival PS4 but we can assume it’s still a big number. Even though Wii-U has been a commercial failure to date, stronger times seem on the horizon with games like Super Mario, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart and a new Zelda. If the excitement for these titles, however, will be enough to save Wii-U remains to be seen.

The markets slowest selling systems, the Wii-U and the PS Vita have both recently received price drops, which will hopefully boost both systems. Much like the Wii-U, 2013 and 2014 will be a tell-tale time-period for the PS Vita. Now that the system has received a price drop, a new model, many new games, Vita TV and the system’s functionality as a peripheral screen for PS4 (allowing remote play), it is clear that Sony are putting all of their eggs in the basket for the Vita and trying to make it a must-have system. The Vita is already an incredible system with many great games but add in even more titles, Vita TV, PS4 and a price-drop and the system truly is a must-have.

As has been the case for the past few years Playstation has been the stronger system, largely due to exclusive titles like the Last of Us, Sly Racoon, God of War and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls and Gran Turismo. On top of this Sony also had their incredibly successful PS4 reveal and launch build-up, which had really solidified their position as the hardcore gamers system-of-choice.

Xbox had a much more turbulent year, obviously due to the confusion and ager surrounding their policies over the Xbox One. After the DRM, always-online, always-on camera, lack of games (in the beginning) and the big price-point, fans became very jaded with the company. After all the negativity squared at the company they have done a 180 and changed all their policies, making the difference between Xbox One and PS4 minimal. So 2013 was not Microsoft’s finest years but they have pulled a lot of momentum back, and with a very strong launch line-up, things can only go up from here. The PS4 will undoubtedly have a stronger launch, and probably year, but that will only have a small reflection on the long-term outcome for the eight generation; as seen with PS3 and 360.

Game-wise 2013 was amazing. Competition-wise 2013 saw the biggest shots fired between Microsoft and Sony to date. Commercially 2013 was also great for companies, sure God of War and Gears of War both undersold, but The Last of Us greatly exceeded expectations and GTA V has become the fastest selling entertainment medium of all time, making over $1 Billion in 3 days. 2013 has provided us with more to talk about than any other year before; be it the games, the new consoles, the controversies or reignited fan boy wars.

With some of the greatest games ever, and more to come, new console released, fierce competition between companies and price-drops for struggling systems, I really find it hard to imagine how 2013 could have been any more exciting.